1. Cool Activities for the Classroom
Dr. Jeri Kraver
Professor of English
Director of English Education

2. Before We Start Take a look at the brief essay I gave you and do this:
Circle or write on a separate sheet any words, phrases, or quotations that are particularly interesting or confusing or meaningful
Give me different words or phrases

3. My Blurb: When did learning become such a drag?
Fun is suddenly a four-letter word. No matter what your content area, there are a number of quality activities that encourage creative thinking and learning. And, they are fun. Know this:
fun activities and challenging learning are not antithetical
fun does not mean easy
Good teachers have a quiver filled with activities designed to surprise and delight students.

4. What’s Your Aim> What is the goal of your instruction?
What do you want your students to “take away” from your class?

5. What’s Your Aim> What is the goal of your instruction?
What do you want your students to “take away” from your class?
Would your students consider your class fun?

6. Purposeful “Fun”
Origin: late 17th century (denoting a trick or hoax): from obsolete fun 'to cheat or hoax', dialect variant of late Middle English fon 'make a fool of, be a fool', related to fon 'a fool', of unknown origin.
You might think that this definition is a pejorative—I mean cheating is bad behavior, and a hoax is never a good thing. However, I kind of like it, b/c I think fun in the classroom fools students into forgetting that they are actually learning stuff. It’s like a spoonful of sugar or chocolate covered Brussels Sprouts.

7. Once upon a time …
fun was not an issue. No one cared if students had fun. We got to school, sat down, opened our books, and got to work. WE sat in our seats for the duration of the class. We dutifully took notes, we rarely asked questions, we did our homework, we took our tests.

8. Theory to my Madness
“As silence and obedience to authority were most rewarded, students learned that this was the appropriate demeanor in the classroom.  Loudness, anger, emotional outbursts, and even something as seemingly innocent as unrestrained laughter were deemed unacceptable, vulgar disruptions of classroom social order.  […] It is still necessary for students to assimilate bourgeois values in order to be deemed acceptable.”
bell hooks, in Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.

9. More bell …
“Fear of losing control in the classroom often leads individual professors to fall into a conventional teaching pattern wherein power is used destructively.  It is this fear that leads to collective professorial investment in bourgeois decorum as a means of maintaining a fixed notion of order, of ensuring that the teacher will have absolute authority.  Unfortunately, this fear of losing control shapes and informs the professorial pedagogical process …”

10. Some Activities BASIC The Book Walk 3-2-1 Think-Write-Pair-Share KWL
REALLY COOL
Text-to-Self; Text-to-Text; Text-to-World
Found Poem

11. Book Walk: Introducing a New Text or Chapter
A pre-reading activity that can spark interest, provide context, tap “SCHEMA”
STEP ONE: For a book, study the cover. For an article, look at the first page—perhaps the abstract.
Ask: Any associations? Any prediction? Any questions?
STEP TWO: Have students look inside a book or page through an article.
Have them look for TEXT STRUCTURES, note the organization, consider headings, glossary, images, charts, etc.

12. Book Walk: Introducing a New Text or Chapter
STEP THREE: Students working in pairs or groups discuss what they found, make predictions, and list questions**.
STEP FOUR: The teacher indicates aspects that students might have missed.
**Keep a list of questions to ensure that they are addressed or answered during the reading of the text.

13. 3-2-1
This activity helps structure students’ responses to an activity, lecture, or text by asking them to complete the following tasks:
Underline on the text or write on a separate paper THREE new pieces of information they learned
Circle on the text or write down TWO points that are unclear or questions that remain unanswered
Place a checkmark next to or write down ONE point, idea, notion that is really cool or fun or engaging or surprising or provocative
Use students’ responses to guide teaching decisions responses can help you identify areas of the curriculum that you may need to review again or concepts or activities that hold special interest for students.

14. 3-2-1
This activity allows you also to check for students’ understanding
Students’ responses should guide teaching decisions. They can help you identify areas of the instruction that may need re-teaching or review or concepts or activities that hold special interest for students

15. KWL
This activity helps introduce a new topic, activate prior knowledge, and monitor learning.
STEP ONE: Either on a paper or on the board, create a “K,” or KNOW, column, and ask students “what do you know** about [the topic]”
** The instructor must decide how to address wrong information students might list. It can be corrected immediately, OR students can be allowed to discover their own misconceptions as they engage the material.

16. KWL
STEP TWO: Create a column for “W,” or WANT, and ask, “what do you want to know about [the topic]”
To prompt students, you can suggest the 5W and H questions
Note that these W questions should guide instruction
STEP THREE: The third or “L” column is for what students LEARN
This column can be completed during the unit or at the end. Similarly, students can add new questions to the W column as they work through the text or unit
   

17. Text to Self; Text to Text; Text to World
This activity will encourage students to
Make connections between the reading and themselves
Make connections between the reading and other texts
Make connections between the reading and the larger world
Reading comes alive when we make connections beyond the text itself. This is a skill that can be practiced and learned.

18. The Set Up Building Background Knowledge
After reading a piece of text, ask students questions that draw out the factual information of the reading.

19. The Set Up Building Background Knowledge Understanding Intent
After reading a piece of text, ask students questions that draw out the factual information of the reading.
Understanding Intent
Ask students about the central purpose, meaning, and outcomes involved in the reading.
Step Two: Understanding Main Idea and Cause and Effect
Ask students about the central purpose, meaning and outcomes involved in the reading.

20. Text to Self
After reading, ask students to write and then discuss questions that relate to themselves. Example prompts include:
What I just read reminds me of the time when I...
I agree with/understand what I just read because in my own life...
I don't agree with what I just read because in my own life ...

21. Text to Text
After reading, ask students to write and discuss about how the text reminds them of another piece of “text.” For example,
What I just read reminds me of another [book, article, movie, song, novel, video game] I read because...
What I read is kind of like [some other text] in that …
Step Four: Text to Text
After reading, ask students to write and discuss about how the text reminds them of another piece of text. For example, "What I just read reminds me of another story/book/poem I read because..."

22. Text to World
After reading, ask student to write and then discuss how the reading relates to the larger world. Example prompts include:
What I just read reminds me of this thing that happened in history because...
What I just read reminds me of what's going on in the world now because...  

23. Found Poem
Found poems are created through the careful selection and organization of words and phrases from a text the students are reading/studying.
Writing found poems provides a structured way for students to review material and synthesize their learning.

24. Step One: Create a List of Words, Phrases, and Quotations.
Ask students to review any text related to the unit of study, including textbooks, journal articles, handouts, primary documents, websites, you name it.
Ask them to record words, phrases, or quotations that are particularly interesting or confusing or meaningful. (Aim for between different words or phrases.)

25. Step Two: Determine a Theme and Message.
Have students identify a theme/thesis/main point that unites the words, quotations, or phrases that they have collected.
It can be helpful for students to do this step with a partner. Have them trade lists and describe the themes or main ideas they see in their partner’s list.

26. Step Three: Compose the Poem.
Students arrange the language they have selected to create their poems.
One approach: have students write all of the words and phrases on slips of paper so that they can move the slips around until they are satisfied with their poem.
Students do not need to use all of the words or phrases they have previously selected.
Start small: the Haiku or Limerick is cool.

27. Compose the Poem: TWO Approaches
Some versions allow students only to use words that have been collected from their “texts.”
They cannot add their own words when creating their poem--not even articles or prepositions.
They can repeat words or phrases as often as they like.
THUS, once students have selected a theme and a message, they may need to review their materials again to collect additional language.
OR, let them supplement with their own words—a minimal number, only in the service of syntax or grammar.

28. Haiku You
The most common form for Haiku is three short lines that DO NOT rhyme. The first line usually has five (5) syllables, the second line seven (7) syllables, and the third line five (5) syllables. The red blossom bends and drips its dew to the ground. Like a tear it falls

29. The CLEAN Limerick
A limerick is a short, humorous, often ribald (aka dirty) or nonsense poem of one five-line stanza with a strict rhyme scheme (AABBA).
There once was a young girl named Jill. (A) Who was scared by the sight of a drill. (A) She brushed every day (B) So her dentist would say, (B) “Your teeth are so perfect; no bill.” (A)

31. Rap
Start from a song know and replace the lyrics with their own—drawn from their list of words
Choose a focus: what is their message?
Come up with a good “hook”—that is, the catchy part of a song that gets stuck in your head
Structure the song: most raps have two or three verses interspersed with the hook.
Add the “breakdown” in the middle. The breakdown is often a moderate departure from the repetitive structure of the verses and the hook. It changes the flow of the lyrics.
Your students have a head filled with memorized lyrics

32. Step Four: Share Students read their poems aloud to the class.
Or “Pass the Poem”: students pass their poems to the left once to a peer. The peer reads the poem, writes a comment, and then passes the poem again to the left for another comment. (Each student signs his/her comment.) Go for three or four passes.

33. Step Five: Discuss
Close the activity with a final discussion about what the prompts reveal about the material students have just studied.
Discussion prompts might include:
What strikes you about these poems?
What do the poems have in common (i.e., words, ideas)?
How are the poems different?
What surprised you when reading the poems?

34. A Final Activity: Poets’ Statements
Found poems help students review and synthesize their reading/learning. However, the poem itself does not always reveal the thinking that has gone into creating this work. Ask students to write a brief statement that explains their poem. They can think about the following questions:
What is the message of your poem?
What “evidence” can be found in your poem that supports this message?
Why is this message important to you?

35. The Point
Everything you do as an instructor must have a purpose: the texts you select and assign, the assessments you administer, the activities you employ
That purpose must be made explicit to students
They are not we
The most successful instruction connects to students lives and literacies outside the classroom